The rap on young people is that they're hedonists, seeking immediate gratification over long-term gain from restraint, planning and patience. As I confessed in my previous post, I find all of this stuff to be nonsense. To be specific, I don't see much change from the days when I attended boarding school. 

 

Perhaps the magic of a school year at a boarding school in New Hampshire is that the entire experience is a study in delayed gratification. You arrive in late summer, and revel in the glory of autumn and then plunge into November, the first of six challenging months. Whether weather provides dry powder or endless weeks of wet sleet and cold rain, it is winter in New England. You take what you get. Then, suddenly in May, the air is scented with forsythia, lilac, lily-of-the-valley and apple blossoms. It's time to emerge. It was all worth it.

 

Consider the entire year as a study in delayed gratification....
Sam is reading an English assignment.

 

Lynne Kenney's World History class has ninth graders presenting projects that reveal nuances of historic social crises through art. Each project is the product of long weeks of work, and each is wholly unique. This project leads us through a path that teaches the way of Buddhism.




These projects bring peer students, faculty, staff and family to campus for presentations that relate abstract art to history.




Environmental science is taking advantage of the glorious weather to conduct a study of local aviary species. We start right at the center of campus, where barn swallows nest everywhere.

 

But my topic is delayed gratification, and Andrew has spent exactly one year on a project that is now complete: the construction of an elegant, two-person kayak. It's time for launch.

 



Meanwhile, the pond is coming alive, and we are completing a circle. Summer is again in the air!